


The Fair Night

by zero_paradise



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: AU vibes, Eventual Smut, F/M, Gore, Manipulation, Past Cloti, Revenge, Violence, rated for later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:33:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26013427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zero_paradise/pseuds/zero_paradise
Summary: A mysterious calling leads Tifa down an unmarked path. Desperate, lost, and with no choice she releases a monster from a strange materia. For his freedom and life, on his honor, Zack swears to fix every wrongdoing. He will be her shadow, she will never be alone, and never fear the dark again. His words are true but his smile is cruel and his truths hidden.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Tifa Lockhart
Comments: 11
Kudos: 19





	1. Summons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Again, just trying to flex my writing muscles. I had a hella hard time with the overall summary lol, that could change!_
> 
> _With all the artwork by[ DarktownArt ](https://twitter.com/DarkTownArt/status/1295941274881732608) and [ JunHimekawa ](https://twitter.com/JunHimekawa/status/1297328395575947266) inspiration hit. So be sure to check them out._
> 
> _I def. want this fic to get dark BUT I’M ALSO A SAP AND A SUCKER FOR CUTE SHIT. SO….Who the fuck knows where I’m going with this.  
>  Warnings for manipulation and gore. Please be sure to comment! _  
>   
>   
>   
> 

**The Fair Night**

_Chapter 1: Summons_

The bar is lonely these days. Seventh Heaven filled every seat, lines would gather at the door. Booths would be open, and some would wait just to sit at the bar. The owner’s smile is kind, guests leave with warm smiles, full bellies, and drunken grins. Every night, everyone leaves. She was not alone, but lonely.

Tifa stopped watching the clock, she didn’t check her phone on the hour, and finally she lost count of the exact days since he left. Was it better to think Cloud was dead? He wouldn’t just leave her. No note and a promise of he’d be back soon. He barely got dressed and took only his motorcycle. He wasn’t the same after being dismissed from SOLDIER. He was happier, she thought. She had not been able to see the sadness behind his eyes—why. Why couldn’t she see it? There had to be more signs. 

His laughter became a memory as fast as his presence did.

“I need some air.” He said the night he left her bare under the sheets. Tifa watched his back with a sleepy smile,

“See you soon.”

“Yeah, Teef.” He smiled back just over his shoulder.

A month had passed, and she couldn’t stand to sleep in her bedroom. All his clothes were still in the closet. His weapons where he left them. The king bed now vast and lonely and the lintel a reminder of the worst lie ever whispered. Tifa bought a new punching bag the second month. People at the gym watched her with worried eyes. They assured her all eyes and ears were open, that Cloud was a strong guy. The punching bag became a new flower plucking method: he left me, he’s dead. He left me. He’s dead. Right hook, left.

The third month she bought three dresses. She tried dating but she knew it was too soon and politely excused herself after she paid for the meal. The other two dresses still had the tags on and hung in the back of the guest room closet. 

After a year, Tifa stopped blaming herself for never reading the room or finding the signs.

She took up new hobbies. Reading and long-distance running. She played chess with geezers at the bar and poker with Johnny on Sunday evenings. No one could see past her kindness, they didn’t look deep enough inside to hear the cries of WHY. Why couldn’t she move on? Why was she stuck? Why was everything so normal like he had never come home at all? Why couldn’t he just tell her?

Reading provided understanding of other difficult situations. 

Running kept her one step ahead of trying to answer herself. 

One morning she couldn’t sleep, had she binged too much on TV and her mind wasn’t at rest? It should be. It had been a rare day closed at the bar. Repairs she had to hire in for the AC, she was supposed to clean house as a final chore. Instead she laid in her bed on the couch and thought about how she could get up and wash the windows. She knew there was laundry to be done and that she ought to start with a second pot of coffee. Soon it became, she just remembered she hadn’t eaten since yesterday and in a minute, she’d order in. Treat herself! In a glorious moment she turned on the television, now she was getting somewhere. Reno had given her his S-Flix account and had a list of things to try. She could start with that. She started, the volume was low and failed to keep her focus like her ceiling. 

The glow of the TV replaced the rays of the sun. When had it gotten to be that late?  
The day wasn’t technically over until she slept; it didn’t have to be worthless if she got something done now. At 3 AM. Beggars could not be choosers. Tifa put on her grey joggers and sports bra. She tied her hair up tight and clipped in haste Materia. 

Crystalized gifts of the life stream didn’t come easy. Most were her spoils from her own risky encounters, most where left behind from Cloud. Tifa hadn’t sorted through his inventory, these happened to be ones he put on gear for her. It wasn’t safe to wonder without some protection, why then had he gone and left everything in their room, locked up tight, and forgotten. Tifa twisted her sneakers laces into knots and flexed her fingers, her leather gloves with brass knuckles squeaked with life. The cure and fire still embedded into each hand. Safety first.

Tifa ran. Her only light the small flame conjured in front of her, small enough to barely weaken her. Bright enough to light her path when the moon couldn’t reach. The path forked, one to another sector and the other towards a forest. Monsters would be plentiful under the shade of night. She boxed in place. 

What were a few monsters? She could use a throttling. Something had to be the answer. She’d never felt so done, so spent and listless. The days were bleeding together. Customer faces were blurred and more and more, she didn’t care about her slice of heaven. Nothing felt right and it wasn’t because Cloud had gone. Was it because he left again? She had never been enough?

Gravel crunched under her red sneakers, Tifa powered down the path towards the forest. She had to be faster, her heart needed to beat out the questions that had just been a fog in her house. Faster. Faster. Her breath was the first to fall behind, her ponytail whipped at her back, and stray strands stuck to the sweat on her neck.

“Heavens.” Tifa held her side, a stitch ripping through her and sudden impossibilities settling in her feet like lead. She wasn’t hungry but knew her body needed to be fed. She needed water! A break! She’d be fine with a small break, the hunger would come back at the bar, and the thirst would be quench. There was a stone just off the path, Tifa kept her back against it and sank to the ground. The air would soon been cool against her sweat though for now it was perfect. Her hand closed and the flame vanished, she fanned herself.

Her ears stopped ringing and her heart found a comfortable rhythm. Only after her panting stopped, did she notice the forest was silent. Tifa looked up. Too dark to see after the moon took refuge behind the clouds. Her hand twitched, no. She waited to create a flame, whatever was out there that hushed even the bravest of crickets was already at the advantage.

Just as she wrote it off as nothing,

‘ _Why?_ ’

Tifa jumped to her feet, her hands were up and fire at her fist. There was nothing, not even a leaf.

‘ _Why?_ ’

She pivoted to her right. A wheel kicked to her left. Nothing. Her hair had moved at her ear when the trees had been stilled. 

‘ _Help me._ ’

There was a trail off the path, the voice distant. Helpless. She knew it to be a trap. It was a man, he sounded…Small, not young. Tifa waited and for a moment the voice did too.

‘ _Help me, please. Please._ ’ Tifa took a step forward and the voice spiked with excitement in its pleas. Worry was a particularly tapped vein. She constantly checked in with her friends, the war was over but some were still wrapped up in Shrina tactics. Barrett was on a kid friendly adventure, Marlene wanting to see the world and she wished she’d join them. Everyone was always fine but something always felt wrong. She was on edge, waiting for the show to drop. A phone call to come that there was an accident. The voice needed her, she could do something. Be someone who made a difference. Be more than just the girl left at the bar. The closer she got the more panicked the voice cried elated and afraid, Tifa too. She understood. 

Faster and louder. Louder! Faster! Closer!

At once they stopped together. She grew her flame, her vision doubled. Tifa braced herself on a branch and pulled the flame back to soft glowing ember. A cure wouldn’t be possible if she didn’t have the stamina. 

“Fuck,” she pressed on and scoured the wooded path for a body. “No, please no.” The flame extinguished completely, too much of her spirit invested. Tifa hugged her waist, the grey of the sky and peaks of the stars had vanished under the canopy of trees. Something lurked in these woods, waiting and watching. She could fight. She put her arms up. Even if she couldn’t see it was fine, she had enough energy for a good hit, maybe enough to caste a haste and run like hell.

Tifa had been ready for an attack in the dark but not for the ground to open its mouth and swallow her whole. The chasm was gaping. Her scream chased her fall. Her body smacked hard into the ground. All the wind knocked out of her. Tears jumped from her eyes, her throat too tight to scream. Something was in her leg! 

Her leg was warm, the rest of her cold. 

“NO,” her chested heaved, at least her back hadn’t been broken in two. Her neck had no strength to lift her head. Come on, girl. Come on, Tifa! The words were a brief encouragement of cries for this to not be happening. Everything practically mute under the screams of the pain.

She gritted her teeth. One leg could move. Her nails clawed the dirt and fisted a broken stick. Training every day had paid off. The number of times she had been kicked to her back and held with her arms twisted and locked finally had their moment. Her panic shut off. There wasn’t a switch to hit, her body just knew. Breathe. She never tossed Barrett off by trashing around. She had to breath, feel his weight, and make a plan.

Two hundred plus pounds was different than a gushing leg. Her clothes stuck to her, wet and matted. 

Breathe. Don’t panic.

“Why,” she cried.

‘ _Why_ ,’

“Help me, please.” There was no one but the whisper and Tifa wondered if it was the will of the planet, the life stream was fickle and ghosts snuck through the cracks in the ground. They fell in the rain and were the shadows in corners. She laughed, seriously? Seriously. Shive this was happening. 

Don’t panic. 

Her nails knocked against something glass. Tifa snatched her hand back, fire and laughter echoed in her mind fast as lightning. Only a flash but vivid and detailed. She reached again her fingers inched closer and pulled her shoulder down with a sob. The ground was muddy and warm.

Tifa let herself lie, she wasn’t bleeding out. This was just mud. She had been training every day, each time someone asked if she was okay? Yes! This was the same, it’s just mud.

Her hand grabbed the glass ball, it rolled to her and fit into her fist like a glass slipper. Once lost, now found! 

You know. Having no energy meant nothing if she bled out. The thought wasn’t her own, she wouldn’t laugh and mock herself in her final moments. A cure was obvious, but she had just barely started breathing again.

Just call it out, cast it.

The movements of the body guided the Materia to life. Incantations, chants, dances, and meditations were all viable practices to pull the potential out of the crystals. A basic cure didn’t have to be fancy, it was all she had and the clock was ticking. Somewhere in the back of her mind she counted down the seconds.

‘ _Or._ ’ The voice was back without illusions of being her own. It was deep and smug, no longer desperate and crying. There was nothing small about the energy, it loomed over body. He had her now and it was inside her. Electricity vibrated through her and her fists clenched the dirt and glass ball. Her jaw set,

‘ _I can help you. Call me out._ ’ This was the void, Tifa had been foolish to doubt the sanctuary of Seventh Heaven. There was nothingness here.

Her body was ablaze, and her blood ran cold. Was this what it was to die? Her heart, beat on, slower and slower. It was easier to let go and relax. She wasn’t afraid of the mud or the dark anymore. She wasn’t hurting…

‘ _I’m here now._ ’ The voice floated above her. Her head fuzzed, impossible to say if her vision went black it was already so dark. ‘ _You’re stronger than that. Trust me_.’ An unmistakable hand pressed on her thigh. The pain returned without remorse. The pain a promise she was alive and there was some blood left inside her.

A wet hand touched her cheek. She smelled smoke. Copper. A strange vibration painted across her lips like her mouth had ghosted across an old TV screen. There didn’t have to be anything for energy to pull together. But it wasn’t nothing, it wasn’t a battery it was lips themselves. Locking with hers. Moving into her. They became hers.

“Cure.” Together they spoke. Her left glove glowed, not the familiar blue of her typical cast. Red. The Materia mocked her. A heat sealed her leg. Tifa howled, no! No, her nerves were snapping together and meat and muscle fought to come together. The wood that had speared her was still in her. She lifted her hip and fell on it again. Her heart worked twice as fast to compensate for the loss of blood. Her body wasn’t quick enough to stop the spinning or ears ringing. The glow begun to fade into the shadows. A dark hair man sat on all fours above her. His grin knowing as he stood. Tifa grunted as something moved her leg from the pike she had been impaled upon. The grin was last to fade as the cure sunk fully into her body. Her spirit spent; darkness befell her.

The morning light entered the forest under a veil, a darker grey than even Midgar. Routine was her ally, comfort never kept her in bed on her couch. She had to open the bar. She had to be strong and move forward. Her smile was a lie hiding the coal behind carmine eyes. Vomit was her second motivator to fight the aches in her bones. Her hands shook, her head was heavy, limp like a noodle.

“Please,” Reality snapped in quick. Tifa jerked both legs. The pain was iron hot and moved with her. “Shiva,” She pressed a hand to her heart. A rusty hue crusted her fingers, a blackish blue ball in her hand, it dripped with something was not mud. Not a ball. A Materia. 

Had that man left it? A cold cavern came to mind. A memory blanketing every thought and overriding every sense. Her teeth chattered and her skin coated in bumps. Tifa dropped the crystal and rubbed her arms, stomach and stopped at her legs. Her entire right pant leg was matted in blood. She looked harlequin in the contrasting colors. All of her ached, the rest had helped the healing process, but she needed more. Up, up, and up Tifa followed the wall of the chasm. Her back hit the ground again, head too heavy to support.

Why hadn’t she taken her phone? Even without a signal she had a map saved on her phone. She could wait till night and hope the sky was clear to read the stars.

‘ _Do you really think you’ll survive another night in the dark?_ ’

Metal clashed in her ear, a laugh and a whoop as a creature squealed. Tifa looked towards where the sound hand been. It was small, defenseless, and hungry. There was nothing now, except a trail of blood. How had she survived one night? There had been something here, looking for a meal. Hell, she was hungry. Starved. 

‘ _I wouldn’t even try to stand_.’

Tifa never told herself no. To prove it to herself and remind her bones, her hands pushed up hard. All of her capsized, a boat on rocky waters she toppled forward onto her knees and down on her face.

‘ _Told you!_ ’ He cackled. But there was no man insight. ‘ _I’m here,_ ’ his breath was hot on her ear. He was so close her hair moved.

“I don’t understand.” The ball hit her leg. Nothing known had rolled it. It came through the path of her blood still pooled. Somehow, somewhere deep down she knew she shouldn’t wipe the blood off. Tifa looked into it, someone stared back.

The raven hair man smiled,

He could get her home. He protected her this night. He was a hero? A man in a Materia? A lost guardian, Tifa answered unsure.

Heavy hoofs came through the thicket of trees, thick leathery hides immune to the wicked twisted branches. The leaves moved in waves at the creature’s breath.

‘ _I need help too_ ’ The ball was warm in the palm of her hand. The feeling spread like a wave. It found every ached and kissed it with a promise. He could help. He needed help too, he knew what it meant to burn in shadowy flames. He festered in the same void as her. He had been waiting for so long for someone to hear him, he wasn’t gone. How funny it was her that had found him again. Oh he had been waiting! Yearning! 

The forest floor shook. A young thing squealed. Tifa couldn’t understand the details only the message. A child was tattling to its mother. Monsters loved and cared for one another, the laws of the forest were certain and true. The survival of the fittest thrived here, last nights survival was a onetime fluke.

She was afraid. Her hands shook and she clenched the Materia. This was it, she thought. After all her training and trials, this would be her unmaking. Lost and alone in the woods.

The smell of her blood drove the beasts near and razzed their instincts. She wasn’t alone, she didn’t have to be.

‘ _We can help each other...?’_

“Tifa,” She said to him and swore every kiss against her skin had smiled.

‘ _Call me...’_

“Fair Night,” their words weaved together, his lips were hers as the spoke. The ball glowed and power poured from it scorching her palm. Droplets of rain were quick to cool it. A red rain cloud hovered above and dark water cried and charged the ground. The down pour was no shield against the rage of a vengeful mother. Her tusk thicker than a branch would finish the job the spear hadn’t been able to do.

One hit, she told herself no matter what, she could get one hit. Just get up Tifa, get up. None of her would move, not frozen with fear but immobilized with exhaustion. Tifa clutched the burning piece to her chest, she wouldn’t look away from her fate. 

This was it. No note, no goodbyes.

Footsteps behind were lost under the roar of the beast, its voice crashing on her like a freight train derailed. From Its mouth open, heat and salvia seared her. Inches from her face, the beast stopped. It gargled and dug its hooves into the ground. The creature had not touched her. She felt a burn of steal on her neck, the bottom half of her earing was gone and there was a laugh. A dark feeling tugged at her chest, something wicked in the lift of his sword. Her hair stood on edge; she had been afraid of the beast but this feeling threatened her: danger. Do not open. Enter at your own risk. Hazardous Material.

“Think you can push me back? Think again, big boy!” A body stopped passed her, strong steps pushed the creature back, back, and back.

“Oh yeah!” He hollered over the sound of bones crunching and guts ripping. Tifa had barely registered the spray of blood on her face when the same frantic squeal screeched again.

“Not on my watch!” Metal cut through the air and silenced everything but the rain. The spray wasn’t enough to clear the blood from their bodies. She wished it would keep trying, her stomach was roiling. 

The man turned on her and stuck his sword into the ground. The metal familiar in the glimpse, it and the rain suddenly vanished.

“Tifa.” 

“Fair,” 

“Ah ha, no.” he crouched and covered her mouth with his glove. “Zack. You can call me Zack. Handsome. Good looking.” His eyes were heavy and hooded watching her, studying her. His lips curled into a smile, his hand lay on top of hers and pushed the Materia to her chest.

“Hold on to that for me, would ya babe?” The Materia cut her skin, cauterizing the flesh as it passed into her. Tifa screamed and clawed at herself, energy suddenly firing inside her.

“Get it out!” She wailed. Zack watched and tilted his head, impressed she hadn’t blacked out yet. Her breaths were short and wild. Ever gasp of air, another second lost. “What’s, what’s—” Her mind reeled and spun, the world upended itself.

Tifa thought she knew darkness, until she had it pushed inside her.

Zack caught her limp body and lifted her as he stood. He was a man of his word. “Yes,” he breathed in the rain. The sanguine aftermath. Tifa. Her heart was fluttering, a frightened bumble bee. She was sticky with sweat and blood, to him it was honey. The sweet nectar of life! Right in his arms! He squeezed her close and pushed his face between her breast. His smile grisly and painted in crimson.

There it was, right in living flesh. The Materia was gone and he was standing. The air cool against his skin and the girl barely a weight in his arms. He was whole again! 

“All thanks to you.” He touched the fresh wound on her neck, his eyes glowed a bright blue. The skin on his neck peeled apart, the smallest of cuts. It hurt. Pain. Was. _Good_. 

“My lady,” he stomped on the hides of the twitching beasts, the femur of the young creature crunched under his weight. Fuck he was hungry. He had half the mind to start a fire and eat the meat he slayed. But tonight he deserve something more. They would drink the finest of red wines. 

Tifa, Tifa, Tifa. Her name was his heartbeat, a lifeline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This could also change (I need a soundboard lol), but the history up to this point I think is things went very differently up Nibelheim, more subject to change as well lol.  
>   
> Also I'm on tumblr: [diedieri](https://diedieri.tumblr.com/)  
> On pillowfort: [Manas-Moment](https://www.pillowfort.social/Manas-Moment)  
> Please be sure to subscribe, leave kudos, and comments. _please comment_  
>   
>   
>   
> 


	2. Hunger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He hungered. He thirsted. He yearned.
> 
> Tifa took a bite and Zack moaned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> > So I know I really need to go and clean up chapter one.  
> With all the artwork by [ DarktownArt ](https://twitter.com/DarkTownArt/status/1295941274881732608) and [ JunHimekawa ](https://twitter.com/JunHimekawa/status/1297328395575947266) inspiration hit. So be sure to check them out.  
> Please be sure to comment!  
>   
>   
>   
> 

  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  


**The Fair Night**

Chapter 2 Hunger

Tifa’s body bounced on the bed. Dust floated high and moated in the dim sun’s rays. Her skin was cold, going grey. That wasn’t supposed to happen. By the time he reached the bar he had felt sluggish. His host wasn’t bleeding anymore. The trickle at her neck was dry. Zack hooked his fingers into her sweatpants and yanked the fabric down to her thigh, the fabric crunched. The wound was nearly closed, nasty looking, swelled and pussing. Weak. Human bodies were fragile, even he had once been penetrable and pliable. Once upon a time wasn’t that long ago, but time got fucked when you were in the beyond. Moments cycled and repeat.

There was Tifa. 

_Tifa, Tifa, Tifa._

Her leg flinched under his touch. Gloved hands glided up to her underwear. Leopard print with elastic exposed and pulled impressing no one. He couldn’t look away. He laid his palm on her stomach. His host slept through it. If she were awake, Zack laughed and his hand stopped in its withdrawal. Tifa wheezed, her chest quaking in its rise and fall. 

“That’ll be me,” he explained and unzipped the front of her sports bra just before the clasp fell apart. An old scar consumed by a black spider web. The Materia pumped in her veins, those closest to the skin darkened by him. He traced a line up to her collar bone and back down again. Where he pushed the Materia inside her now a target, his eyes drawn to it like a magnet. The expanse of his hand covered her chest. Her heart beat his,

Zack’s laugh was breathless. 

“Alright, angel. Let’s fix you up.” He zipped her closed and yanked up her pants. Her bed no place for the bloody fabric but it was better than taking his dues too early, she’d have his head. His hand flexed, “You hear that thought?” He snorted and shook out his wrist. 

The room was cozy but void of life. Something untouched and sacred about the room he had let himself into. Without a second glance he opened the closet door. Materia called to him now, like an echoing bell and a game of hide and seek. They were distant cousins, moments of time trapped, crystalized, and at another’s beck and call. Zack didn’t reach for the box of bells, his attention stolen by a broad sword. Clean of rust and blood, it hung like a trophy. He traced the silver linings and bronze casting. 

Want fell from his fingertips; the sword scared her. Haunted her memories. She wanted to take it herself and find him. Her desires painted this room and thrummed inside him. Zack crushed the need in his fist. None would be forgiven. 

“We’ll be together soon, old friend.” He found a duffle behind the lock box of Materia. Elixirs, potions, and stimulants lined its pockets. Zack flicked a syringe and slid it into the bend of Tifa’s elbow. She’d come back to him now.

“Damn. Who’s hungry?” He picked up her lifeless wrist and dropped it to the bed. Tifa’s gasp filled the hall as he descended the stairs. Her kitchen wasn’t completely bare. Zack squeezed an apple, his teeth crunched into its core and juice dripped down his chin. He spat everything out and wiped his lips and scrapped his tongue. His eyebrows pulled in confusion and his lips soured in disgust, he tried another bite. Logically it was crisp and juicy! It crumbled to sand in his mouth. He dropped the half-eaten fruit and dove for water. He wasn’t hungry, he had to be thirsty! His throat was parched! Sweat caught on his brow, the spray of the sink washed it away as he stuck his hand under the spout and brought it to his open mouth. 

The water dried on his tongue. A constant torture of sand feeding every natural craving a body could have! Zack gagged and stumbled back. “No!” His arm swept wildly, catching a framed picture, the glass shattered on the floor. Above him, a thunk. He cupped his thigh with a snarl sharp ache pulsating inside of him though he knew there was no wound on his own person.

He couldn’t whisk away to her now, he was corporal. Zack took the stairs in two. Tifa lay on the floor just outside her bedroom. His forearms ached as she pulled herself forward, the stimulant gave her strength, so what was stopping her?

“Hey.” He crouched in front of her and lifted her chin, he dropped it. She was like touching fire! Her body burned to extinguish an infection. Zack looked at her thigh, the sensible choice. But his eyes drifted up higher on her body. There was another invader inside of Tifa. The virus had a friendlier name than infection or disease. He didn’t know all the details or side effects, he’d just known if he wanted to live it had to be Tifa to house his core. “Uppsiedaisy,” Zack lifted her for a second time, her head rolled back. He had never been in her house before, the details of it came and went, the memories they shared were a radio station he hadn’t been able to tune into just right. Close to her, Tifa against his chest, the signal became loud and clear. He had no doubts where the bathroom was and eased her into the tub. Zack twisted the faucet and let cold water fill the basin. She shook. 

“Cloud, Cloud,” her teeth chattered his name, “I’m so cold.”

“Why do you think you’re dying?” Zack pulled yanked off his gloves and gear. His eyes were burning with her fever but his fingers shook with a chill. It was just the stimulant, a bad mix with the Materia. Maybe a _little_ bit of the virus name Zack inside her. They couldn’t expect perfection right away! Still clothed, Zack slipped into the tub behind her. He tugged her against his chest.

_Hell._ His hands gripped her shoulders, frozen in the moment. He hadn’t touched another in years, no one had been so close. He thought he’d never touch another soul again much less living flesh.

“You too, huh?” He whispered to Tifa, so near hear body the chanel was still in tune, her mind became open as a book. He brushed her hair from her face and listened. 

_I just need some air._

“He lies.” Zack growled into her ear. They all were liars. Every last one of them, deceitful backstabbers. She thought of it again and again, Ifrit, he got it already! Zack unzipped her bra and pressed his hand hard on her chest, his fingers threading nicely on the veiny dark web. A calm over came them both, his irritation abated and her fever faded. 

“Cloud?”

“No.”

“Oh,” Tifa breathed in sharp and only pushed once against a hold that sternly said no. She wasn’t afraid, even if she should have been. The weight was comforting, it felt like a piece of her that had long been lost was finally found. The bath was cold and the chest she lay on warm. The stranger, she knew him from the woods, had followed her home? Taken—.

Zack nodded as if reading her thoughts. Tifa’s mouth parted in surprise. Their knees bumped together, the tub too small for even one of them. Was she just poised for the fight, the calm before the storm?

A thumb stroked her chest and a new heat rose to her cheeks. It wasn’t a threatening or leering touch, despite their position. A deep heat inside her was soothed, like a kiss punctuating a promise. The water looked filthy, her leg! Zack held her waist, keeping her still.

“The wound is closed. You wanted me to take your pants off?”

The argument should have applied equally to her bra, her breasts were exposed and barely covered by the expanse of his hand. It was wrong, her mind snapped, then dulled under the same injection of comfort it gave.

“Why are we in the tub?” Her throat was hoarse, she swallowed twice as she spoke. Zack slid his hand up and cupped her neck. Tifa stilled. She remembered the woods and the silence that came with him. Her home was no different but if she screamed maybe someone would hear. He was unarmed but that wouldn’t stop him from wringing her neck? Had she taken something to feel this calm?

His thumb traced her jaw, his laughter tickled her ear.

“Fate is cruel.” He was living, but Tifa was _alive._ How dare he think he could taste the riches of the earth while she suffered? Tifa wanted so little. _Cloud_. She wanted to pick up that night they left off. 

“You are parched.” His hand traced a line from throat to navel,

“Hungry.” For a moment she thought his fingers were going to follow their path, her stomach sucked in and Zack grinned against her. He was, she was sure of it, but thinking it his hand receded. 

“Let’s eat.” Zack stood with his arm under her. She pulled away with her own two feet on the ground and was surprised to find her strength had come back to her. For a moment she smiled at him, it faded at his scowl, a solemn reminder this was wrong. He was a stranger, the whisper in her heart confused., but her brain spoke through the fog, do not trust him. His eyes cut into her, sharp and wise. Tifa backed away.

“I need to change.” Two steps away, Zack followed her. “Hey.” She pivoted and at last made her stance. In a firm voice she pointed, “stay.”

“Alright,” he sneered and folded his arms over his chest. He gestured for her to go. Tifa snatched a towel hanging on the wall and thrusted it at him first. The man caught it and balked. After all this she was giving him first dibs? His fingers twisted the terrycloth. Tifa grabbed another on towel her way out. The heat was lightening fast, it struck her and her head swam.

“Shit.” Zack hissed, he darted forward and snaked his arms around Tifa’s waist right as she pitched forward.

“What,” Her breathing picked up, panicked. 

“Sh, shh.” Zack eased her up right, the curves of her body lined naturally with his. They were two pieces at last slotted together. His hands ran down her sides and up her middle, he whispered into her ear and inhaled her fear, her quivers. 

“This is just the adjustment. You see you,” Zack peeled off the sports bra, the fabric wet and in the way, he laid his hand back in place. Just at her center where her body consumed the Materia, “asked for help. You called me forth to save you.” 

Her chest heated and lifted into his hand and sank back toward her spine. All of her had a gravitational pull keeping her centered. She wanted to be closer to the stranger, the electricity inside her sparking the more he pressed into her and the heat funnel away from her head.

“I lived. Aren’t you done?” Tifa faced her fears, if she asked and maybe she would find him in the woods again. Her lips shook and it was natural to put her chin on his body, just under his collarbone. Their eyes connected and she could swear there was something bright under the inky pull of his eyes. If she could clear it, she’d see the real him. There was something familiar about the stranger.

_‘Yes_ ’ a life breathed inside her and at her ear.

Zack lifted her arms and put them around his neck, Tifa kept them in place. She refused to hold on to him as his hands crawled and dragged across her skin, waking every cell inside her. “Do you feel saved yet?”

Tifa had woken alone in her bedroom, she found her eyes staring at the door wondering who had opened it, and hoping it was _his_ return. After all this time she was still waiting. Tifa had waited through the war, she could wait a little longer.

“Will that save you?” Zack asked, hands following the length of her arms back to her core and his. “Do you always just want to be waiting?” 

“You can help?”

“I can. I said I would, as long as you have this.” Zack pressed his palm to the middle of her chest, his hands never crossed over her breasts. He didn’t need to just to get her attention. He tapped his finger against her sternum. Tifa jumped. The feeling echoed inside her. “I’m yours, Tifa.”

He confessed he didn’t know the details, he’d never equipped Materia like this with a human, into her very essence. Until it settled, they had to be close, never more than feet away. He had to follow every footstep into the guest bedroom, Tifa didn’t miss the way Zack rolled his eyes when he turned his back as she changed.

“Do you want some clothes?” Tifa asked and wrapped her hair in her towel. Zack pulled at his soaked shirt, he liked the way it stuck to his chest. He just wished he could _really_ feel the fabric. The wooden floor was cool, he liked that too,

“Hmm. Sure.” He yanked a crop top from her hamper. Parts of himself he lost were slow to return, feeling was hit and miss. The floor was cold but the shirt just was. Zack had felt all of Tifa. Her warmth, the cool stream of breath. The vibration of her shivers. He turned towards her holding the small whit tee, ready to display even some of his humor was back in action. “Think this will do?”

“Hey,” Tifa swatted his head with the fabric. “Do you want to stretch it out?” There wasn’t a single ache beside him. The sudden fever was like it never happened, but too far away, she felt a chill creep back into her bones. Tifa let Zack into the master bedroom. The comforter wet with sweet and dirtied with mud and blood from where he dropped her.

“You don’t come in here,” Zack said the obvious. He scowled at the clothes. He too could see Cloud in each of them. He was all over this room, irritation crawled under his skin and he was surprised to see he felt it resonating beside him in Tifa. Zack listened in, tuning back in to her thoughts. She wanted to get him something new. She didn’t want to see any memory of Cloud in front of her, taunting her.

“Maybe we can go shopping some time?” Her fingers twisted together; she’d sooner buy clothes for a stranger than have Cloud’s paraded in front of her. Zack faced Tifa and peeled off his top. She turned her back to him faster than the fabric fell to the floor. 

“Why aren’t you wearing something more comfortable,” He asked still inside the bedroom. 

Materia inside her or not, she was uneasy. Instincts telling her to be on the ready, run if you get the chance! She’d never make it far as the Materia still worked on settling. The fever would take her if he didn’t catch her first. But who would run away in that? She wasn’t going anywhere, she had been ready for the day.

“Oh. Work. You can sit behind the booth?”

“Work?” He snapped.

“Work. Vacations don’t pay the bills when you’re self-employed. Taking yesterday off was already a hit.” Tifa flinched, his hand cold on the small of her back.

“Well, I’m damn sure people don’t come here for the food.”

Tifa took the high road, she wouldn’t hear it from him when she could feel his eyes on her. She liked her clothes and she liked money. Tips came easy when there was skin, she hadn’t been as attentive lately and no one had complained. Maybe it had never been her words at all that the patrons scrambled for a seat at the bar.

“Very sexy librarian.” He watched her pencil skirt hug her hips, the view was pleasant but he couldn’t watch long to keep their distance small. “Hey, hey.” Zack caught her wrist, “Aren’t you hungry?” The tips of his fingers brushed her bare stomach. The stimulant he’d given had to be masking the hunger, the thirst. He squeezed even as she tugged.

“Zack,” Tifa sighed. 

Couldn’t’ she feel it? She was drying up for the inside, the lump in her throat, that headache? It was driving him crazy. Food. She needed food! She was starved, it wasn’t just a fever up ending her. Guardians. What was this woman thinking?

“Zack. Fair - “

Zack’s internal tired screeched to a halt. He covered her mouth and pinned her body to the wall. He would **NOT** go back. The pull of the piece beckoned him. His hand slid down her throat and over her lacey bra, bright red under a white button up top.

He laid his hand over the spider webbing. “Tifa. Are you going to show everyone?”

Tifa pushed him back, she fought gravity but memories were powerful. Her scar on the underside of her breast was hidden with cloth. “That’s none of your business.”

“Not that,” Zack traced his hand on the darkened veins, they’d hide their true colors soon. He would blend in completely given a few days. Her ignorance made him grin. 

“What?” 

Zack tugged on the stiff collar of her top and jerked his head to the bathroom.

“What the,” Tifa rushed the mirror. She hadn’t, how had she missed it?

“You’re not thinking because you’re hungry,” Zack hissed in her ear.

“I need to change.”

“NO. You need to eat, Tifa! Drink!” His anger seemed to make him grow, his shadow covered the wall and the light in the room sucked into his rage. Tifa pinched her lips together. Zack hadn’t grown, but Tifa had shrunk back. He was upset she hadn’t eaten? She didn’t move until he shrank away, his eyes wild and his hands raked through his hair.

“Fine!” He bit out and followed her step for step back into her bedroom. He looked away while she changed into a high turtleneck without sleeves and still cropped above her waist. The memories of the last time she had worn it seeped into his senses. Cloud had sucked on her neck, he covered her in pink bruises and Tifa didn’t trust the makeup not to run under the sweat of the kitchen.

Zack glowered, his steps like thunder behind her. Tifa wasn’t caving to his tantrum. Whatever he was, her chest hummed with an energy, it made her uneasy. Queasy and unsure if he wasn’t just going to rip it out of her, she didn’t think the removal would be as easy as going in.

She made a peanut butter and jelly, the plate clinked loudly on the table. She filled a glass of water and sat. Zack perched inches away at her side. Her finger traced the rim of the glass, she could feel it. The need for something to wet her throat, she had ate or drank anything since the evening prior, but after what he said, she didn’t want to on principal.

“Please,” it was the small voice from the woods. Needy and helpless. Guilt hit her, 

“You don’t need to wait if you,”

“YOU. Tifa. You need to eat. Ifrit. Please. Please.” His eyes followed a drop on the edge of the glass, his fingers crushed the air between them. Tifa didn’t understand his need, but drank. First in slow sips then gulps.

Zack gasped. A chain had lifted from his neck, his hands snatched her empty glass and he darted to the sync. He filled the glass, then hesitated.

“Zack?” Tifa approached him like a wounded dog, crazed and unpredictable.

“I haven’t. What if I still can’t?” He raised his glass and turned it to her, even distorted by water she was beautiful. His Tifa. His life. His heart.

“What’s a little disappointment?” He tested the water and at last, liquid quenched his thirst. He couldn’t drink fast enough, water splashed down his cheeks and his neck. He hadn’t turned off the sink and didn’t bother refilling the glass. He stuck his head under the water and gulped as much as he could down.

“Zack, slow down, you’ll drown.” There was a laugh to her voice, it didn’t hide the worry. Tifa pulled him away and pressed a cloth to his chin. The faucet was still running behind him. Zack filled the glass and put it to Tifa’s lips, gently he tipped the glass and watched her drink. Their eyes didn’t break. She was afraid, like in the seconds he filled the cup he put something in it and now she was ingesting it. Zack finished the rest for himself in good show of faith and still bound to an unquenchable thirst. 

Tifa filed a pitcher and led them back to the small round kitchen table. Only wide enough for two and it had still been too large for the past year. Tifa rubbed his back, the magnet pulled her toward him as much as he felt the urge to chase her.

“What was that?”

“Eat.” He pointed. “You’re hungry. You’re fucking starved. Okay?” The edge in his voice impossible to hide with temptation just in front of him. Tifa didn’t understand it, she knew this wasn’t just about her. She ripped her sandwich in half and held out the other to him. Zack stared. He hadn’t hesitated to kill a young beast, but taking an offered sandwich made him think twice?

“Eat.” His words, her mouth this time.

“You have to first. I can’t…Until you,” Reason failed him. She just had to trust him, she had to eat first. Everything hinged on the host. Where Tifa hurt, Zack would feel her pain. The human body was weak, there was always something they needed and Zack had been freed of the innate need of everything, but never the desire.

He hungered. He thirsted. He yearned.

Tifa took a bite and Zack moaned. Her cheeks dusted in a pink and she covered her mouth, trying to hurriedly chew and swallow. A familiar heat painted Zack’s cheeks. He watched on the edge of his seat.

“There,” Tifa showed her empty hands. Zack picked up his half of the sandwich. There was nothing particularly majestic about the simple treat. You wouldn’t know it with how quickly he inhaled and wolfed the bread down. He went so far to lick the crumbs from the table.

The channel tunned in again, only it was Tifa’s turn to listen. It was the voice from the woods.

_Please. Please._

Her chest burned with a need to suffice and provide. She had always given meals to those in need and he looked positively starved. Tifa put her hand on his neck, he didn’t need to lap at crumbs. He saved her, she could save him.

“How about I show you why everyone actually comes to Seventh Heaven.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>   
>   
>   
> This could also change (I need a soundboard lol), but the history up to this point I think is things went very differently up Nibelheim, more subject to change as well lol. 
> 
> I reread ch1 on a whim and was utterly confused because I -knew- I had more typed up lol so I went and found chapter two, added a bit and decided to toss it up.
> 
> Comments are my life line lol they inspire the hell out of me to keep on track  
>   
> This is also my side twitter account for writing I’m trying to start to use it more: [ManasMoment](https://twitter.com/ManasMoment)  
> pillowfort: [Manas-Moment](https://www.pillowfort.social/Manas-Moment)
> 
> Just as a reminder I do not have a beta
> 
> Please be sure to subscribe, leave kudos, and comments. _please comment_  
>   
>   
>   
> 


End file.
